Surf's up at King Island

King Island - halfway between Tasmania and Victoria in the Bass Strait - is getting a reputation as one of the world's best surfing spots.

Transcript

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ELEANOR HALL: It's no tropical paradise but King Island is getting a reputation as one of the world's best surfing spots.

The island is in Bass Strait - halfway between Tasmania and Victoria - and is subject to gale-force winds.

These winds are the key to the wave that's luring professional surfers into the island's icy waters.

Felicity Ogilvie filed this report from King Island.

FELICITY OGILVIE: If it wasn't so cold King Island's Lavinia Beach could be mistaken for the tropics - the sand is white, the water is a beautiful turquoise colour.

The man who's known as the patriarch of King Island's surfing community is looking at the waves.

Jeremy Curtain brought surfing to King Island in the '60s.

JEREMY CURTAIN: On Saturday nights we used to have movies shown in the Town Hall and there was an old film called "Gidget Goes to Hawaii", I think it was called. And walking home with my mates we decided we'd better have a go at it and made ourselves a surfboard. It didn't work very well but we were kind of hooked after that.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Mr Curtain was on a fishing trip in 1969 when he discovered a beach break that would eventually be voted by the magazine "Surfing Life" as one of the top 10 waves in the world.

The wave - Martha Lavinia - is named after a shipwreck. It's the wild winds and strong currents that have scuttled many ships along King Island that create the wave.

JEREMY CURTAIN: The waves are fairly unique. In fact they are generated by the winds that are offshore, so the stronger the offshore wind the bigger the waves get. It kind of wraps round the island and forms perfectly tubing, peaky waves.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Because the break is created by wind, the surf isn't always up at Martha Lavinia. Visiting surfers have camped at the beach for up to a month waiting for the wave to form.

JEREMY CURTAIN: It's a fairly difficult wave to surf properly because it's so fast and hollow. And even the best surfers in the world are challenged by it. It depends on the tide too so you can sometimes only get it for two or three hours in a day, but after a two or three hour session here you've usually had enough anyway. Or if not, your board is broken.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Martha Lavinia has made King Island famous but most of the time the surfers riding the waves are locals, like Guy Barns (phonetic).

GUY BARNS: Basically we get the swells coming up from Antarctica.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The wind is coming up from Antarctica, what does that make getting into that water like?

GUY BARNS: In the winter, miserable; in the summer, not too bad, not too bad.

FELICITY OGILVIE: How many degrees Celsius is it usually out there in the water?

GUY BARNS: Winter-wise, anywhere from sort of 11 to 13, 14.

FELICITY OGILVIE: King Island is a rare place where beef farmers like Thor Clemons can surf. Mr Clemons' family farm is next to the coast so he can check out the surf from his paddocks.

THOR CLEMONS: Well I can go for surf after work, as soon as I finish or before I go to work if the surf is good.

There's a lot of surfing with just you and a couple of mates and the waves are pretty good quality.

FELICITY OGILVIE: There's a dozen surfers on King Island and almost as many surfing beaches, so there's never a crowd - just a few islanders in very thick wetsuits, catching waves.

ELEANOR HALL: Felicity Ogilvie reporting from one of the surf beaches on King Island.